Painting a Frame and Substructure

[Jerry]

Have any of your done this lately and know how much paint you used? I have been surprised at the amount of primer that I have used, but the topcoat usually spreads farther. I have 3 quarts of primer on it. I don't want to run out of the topcoat once I start.
Jerry

 

[roscoe]

Because of all the irregular spaces, nooks and crannies if you will, you're going to need more paint than you think. I'm sure unless you are using the best electrostatic equipment, a significant portion will be overspray and excess coating of areas that have already been covered because you can't narrow the pattern enough to just hit the hard to reach areas. If you really used 3 quarts to cover it with one good coat and have no excessive drips or runs, you may need as much to top coat. Don't forget the frame and substructure is not like the outer body panels in that with them, you don't want to stop while applying a top coat and you certainly don't want to have them mix the colors twice. Who cares if the inside of your boot isnt an absolute perfect match with your front fender wells. If I were doing it I'd probably get two qts. and go back for more if I needed it. Left over paint and activator only is good for so long.

 

[mwagon]

3 Quarts on the Frame is alot of Primer. What Primer & Spray Gun settings are you using? Is it a HVLP Gun? If your color is a solid color that's available in a good match in Powder Coating, you might consider Powder Coating Frame instead of paint. Its surprisingly inexpensive to have done, at least in my area.

 

[Healey Nut]

If you're not a purist, you may want to consider doing what I did to my superstructure on my recently sold 64.
The car was Colorado Red. Red is the most expensive paint colour due to all the pigments used to make it; so my painter told me.
So I had him coat all the vulnerable areas on the frame etc. with a coating which is similar to pickup truck bed liner coating.

 

[Marvin Gruber]

For the frame and under body parts of tub I only use epoxy primer followed by the car color. No need for all that primer. No one sees that much of it. If You take a car down that far why not paint all the sheetmetal same colofas factory

 

[Jerry]

Thanks for the advice. What is a cost of powder-coating? I can tell you that I will have $600 in primer and paint.

 

[Marvin Gruber]

I spent at least $1500 for paint supplies on the last 3000 I did. And thats with me doing the work. I'm not a fan of power coating. Its hard coating. Great until it is flexed, then it cracks and flakes off.

 

[blueskies]

You might want to buy extra topcoat so as not to run short in the middle of your work. I would try to match it as closely as possible to the final body color that you plan to apply. That is how Healeys came originally, so why not do it that way again. If you have extra unmixed paint left over after doing the frame and substructure, you can use up that paint later on the back side of the body panels, inside the doors, on door edges, etc. From my recent experience, many automotive paints will last for a number of years without going bad.

As others have said, automotive paints are expensive. But, as a percentage of the total restoration cost, it's not that bad.

 

[Jerry]

I am painting the frame and substructure but I am going to get a professional to paint the outer body panels. Without a paint booth I find the critical pieces just get contaminated and need too many repaints. I usually built a paint booth out of plastic around my car lift. But it is crowded and the air flow is not perfect. So my TR3 required the bonnet to be painted 4 times.

 

[Jerry]

I have the answer for you if you are going to paint your frame and substructure. I used about 2.5 qts of Shopline Urethane paint. Went on well, got a few drips, and I found 3 spots I will go back and touch up. The drips won't show where they are but they bother me. It would be easier to paint if I had a smaller spray gun but then I would have to fill the hopper more. One bee landed in the paint but that area will be covered by the shroud.

 

[Randy Forbes]

I cannot help with the volume of paint used, but I can offer up one (1) tip that's beneficial__if you haven't already discovered it yourself!

Spraying the dash structure for example, start at the top, firewall etc., then progress downward to the trans tunnel (area, as the xmsn tunnel itself will be off) and then the floors and rockers.

Going from top to bottom will minimize "dry spray" and a sandpaper texture, as you keep laying down a wet coat over any overspray. You'll also utilise a lot of that overspray for greater coverage. Too, the paint is less likely to run when you put a layer down on a tacky surface (helps to mist the first coat for the same benefit).

Everybody already knows that? Okay, I'll go back in the garage and mind my own business now...

 

[Jerry]

Randy, your suggestions are always accepted! I did try to paint top , down. But occasionally get carried away with a corner that I was trying to get paint into. The little ledge that the wiper motor sits on is very hard to get a spray gun to hit.

Jerry

 

[Rob Glasgow]

Having the chassis on a rotisserie makes all the difference. Can't imagine trying to do it on the ground.